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Department for International Development

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Developing Countries: Climate Change

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To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Government
plans to provide additional funding to tackle climate change in developing countries
beyond the £5.8 billion allocated between 2016 and 2021.

<p>The UK Government is delivering the £5.8 billion of climate finance we pledged
to provide between 2016 and 2021, and we are committed to ensuring we use this funding
to best effect. Since 2011 we have supported 47 million people to cope with the effects
of climate change, and 17 million to access clean energy.</p><p> </p><p>The Government
is playing a strong role in ensuring developed countries fulfil the collective commitment
to mobilise $100 billion in climate finance by 2020 from public and private sources.
For DFID a key part of this is working with the multilateral agencies which DFID funds,
most notably the World Bank and Regional Development Banks, so that they make their
best contribution to tackling climate change effectively.</p>

<p>Tackling climate change is a priority for the UK Government and for the Department
of International Development (DFID). The UK has pledged to deliver £5.8bn of International
Climate Finance (ICF) from 2016/17 – 2020/21 to help poorer countries tackle climate
change. DFID funds are helping to build the resilience of people and communities to
cope with climate change already locked in, including to natural disasters; to support
the development of low carbon and climate resilient infrastructure; and to support
new technology, research and innovation to improve the effectiveness of action on
climate change. Since 2011 the ICF has helped 47 million people to cope with the effects
of climate change in the developing world, and enabled 17 million to have access to
clean energy.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The UK is also working to increase international
action on climate change. This year DFID is supporting the Prime Minister who has
been asked by the United Nations Secretary General to promote more action to build
resilience to the impact of climate change already locked in, ahead of his Summit
on Climate Change in September 2019.</p><p> </p>

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has in
place to support (a) countries increasingly affected by extreme weather linked to
climate change and (b) refugees displaced by the effects of climate change.

<p>Tackling climate change is a priority for the UK Government and for DFID. Under
the Paris agreement the UK has pledged to deliver £5.8bn of International Climate
Finance between 2016 and 2020 to help poorer countries tackle climate change.</p><p>These
funds are helping to build the resilience of people and communities to cope with climate
change already locked in and taking action to reduce future emissions. The UK has
helped 47 million people cope with the effects of climate change since 2011.</p><p>The
UK is also working to increase international action on climate change. The Prime Minister
has been asked by the United Nations Secretary General to help secure more ambitious
and urgent action to build climate resilience, ahead of the Summit on Climate Change
in September 2019.</p><p>Climate change, environmental degradation and natural disasters
do not create refugees, who are defined as people fleeing persecution and conflict.
However the UK recognises that climate change contributes to the displacement of people
in the most vulnerable regions. This is why a major focus of our work is to build
the resilience of those communities.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department
is taking to mitigate the effects of climate change on the ability of developing countries
to provide adequate nutrition for their populations.

<p>DFID is mitigating the impact of climate change on nutrition both by enabling countries
to adapt to the changing climate and to prepare systems to better manage the effects
of climate shocks. For example, DFID is investing in strengthening nutrition services
in countries like Kenya, and across the Sahel, so they are better able to scale-up
to deal with increases in malnutrition that can arise due to climate-related shocks.</p>

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they have contributed to International Climate
Finance in each year since 2016; what percentage that amount constitutes of the £5.8
billion they pledged to that fund; and whether the full amount pledged will be provided
by 2020 as stated in the Paris Agreement.

<p>The Department for International Development (DFID), the Department for Business,
Energy &amp; Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department for Environment, Food &amp;
Rural Affairs (Defra) are together responsible for spending the £5.8 billion of International
Climate Finance (ICF) pledged by the Government in the period 2016/17 to 2020/21.
The funding is earmarked within departmental budgets.</p><p> </p><p>In total these
three departments have spent ICF of £1,119 million in 2016/17 and £958 million in
2017/18, representing 36% of the £5.8 billion commitment. The amount spent in 2018/19
is not yet available.</p><p> </p><p>The Government remains committed to delivering
the £5.8 billion pledge in full by 2020/21, recognising the vital importance of supporting
developing countries to tackle climate change. Each department has plans in place
to deploy this funding over the remaining period to achieve the maximum impact possible.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department
is taking to ensure that all Official Development Assistance spending is aligned with
the Paris climate agreement objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.

<p>Tackling climate change is a priority for this Government and for the Department
of International Development. In ratifying the Paris Agreement, the UK agreed to work
towards making all financial flows consistent with lowering greenhouse gas emissions
and supporting climate-resilient development.</p><p>The UK has committed to provide
at least £5.8bn of our aid over the period 2016-2021 to tackle climate change. We
are supporting many programmes which contribute to this goal, including those for
example which deliver clean energy. Since 2011, these resources have helped reduce
or avoid 10.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere and
supported 17 million people to access clean energy.</p>

<p>Tackling climate change is a priority for the UK Government and for the Department
for International Development (DFID), and we are already providing significant assistance
to developing countries to help them deal with climate change. It is clear however
that the world is not on track to avoid dangerous climate change and environmental
damage. The Secretary of State wants to see what more we can do with the UK’s aid
budget and how we can encourage others to take more action. The UN Climate Action
Summit in September is a critical moment to increase global ambition and I am pleased
that the UK playing a leading role in shaping the agenda on how to build resilience
to cope with climate change already locked in.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer
of 16 April 2019 to Question HL15044 on Developing Countries: Climate Change, how
much of the £5.8 billion allocated to international climate finance between 2016-17
and 2020-21 will be spent on tackling loss and damage in climate-vulnerable countries.

<p>Action to avert, minimize and address loss and damage associated with climate change
is intricately bound up with action on mitigation, adaptation, disaster risk reduction
and disaster preparedness and response. We therefore do not see that attempting to
define a separate category of finance for loss and damage as useful or practical.
Of the £5.8bn on climate finance we have committed to spend from 2016-2021 the UK
aims to spend 50% on adaptation and 50% on mitigation.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much of the £5.8
billion allocated to international climate finance between 2016-17 and 2020-21 will
be allocated to raising awareness of climate change in developing countries.

<p>We do not allocate money from the ICF specifically to raise awareness of climate
change in developing countries.</p><p> </p><p>Nearly all developing countries signed
the 2015 Paris Agreement and they continue to be active in the international climate
negotiations. The Least Developed Country group (a bloc of 48 nations particularly
vulnerable to climate change) were among those calling on the United Nations Secretary
General to convene a climate summit in September this year to raise global ambition
on tackling climate change. The UK and Egypt, alongside Malawi, Bangladesh, the Netherlands
and St Lucia, are leading work to secure international commitments to take more action
to help countries cope with climate change impacts.</p><p> </p><p>Developing country
governments are already taking action themselves. For example, Bangladesh has introduced
a National Resilience Programme to ensure it has the capacity to respond to extreme
weather events, and the UK is assisting them with that. Bangladesh is one of the global
leaders in cutting the cost and impact of natural disasters.</p>

<p>Delivering the global transition to a low carbon economy will require unprecedented
levels of investment from the public and private sectors. The Government is fulfilling
our pledge to deliver £5.8 billion between 2015/2016 and 20/21. In addition to investing
our own resources, the Government continues to press multilateral organisations to
help countries tackle climate change through providing finance. The Multilateral Development
Banks have an important role to play, and in the last year the World Bank has set
new targets for the proportion of its finance which contributes to low carbon, resilient
development. In 2018, 70% of World Bank projects include some climate benefits, up
from 37% just two years ago.</p><p>Private finance is crucial, and the Government
uses some of its climate finance to unlock investments from the private sector. To
date, we estimate that the UK has leveraged £910 million of private investment. CDC
and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) have a key role in crowding
in other investors and demonstrating that investment in low carbon, resilient development
is possible. CDC has invested over $500 million in renewable power over the last 2
years, and PIDG $300 million.</p><p>The recently published UK Green Finance Strategy
outlines how we will position the UK at the forefront of this global shift, catalysing
the investment needed to transition to a net zero economy.</p>